balance is officially restored
by qaby
Summary: DE. Damon says he's leaving Mystic Falls. Elena convinces him to stay the only way she knows how to.


**A/N: Well, I've been wanting to write Damon/Elena for quite a while now so yeah....That being said, I hope you enjoy the story. :)**

**Also, I had to include that AMAZING quote from the book (The Vampire Diaries: The Return, Nightfall) because it just shows that Delena love is real...:) **

**Big thanks to my bud Claudia!!**

**Side Note: Also, on my poll, Damon/Elena won! So this is the reward for the people who voted Damon/Elena...The actual winner was Nate/Jenny from Gossip Girl, but, since I'm already writing a story on them (check it out if you ship them), I chose the runner-up, which was Damon/Elena**

**Slightly A/U, takes place after Elena realizes she has feelings for Damon...WHICH WILL HAPPEN!!!!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own The Vampire Diaries. **_**Damn.**_

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Elena makes her way down the stairs clumsily, holding on to the banister for dear life.

_Who on earth would make house visits at four o'clock in the morning? On a Wednesday?! _

She opened the front door hastily and her eyes widened and her posture straightened out when she saw Damon leaning against the doorframe. His eyes raked over her body, covered only by a tank top and tiny shorts, and she couldn't help the shivers as they made their way through her body when he slowly smirked.

And then a whole new set of chills were traveling down her spine when she saw that the sort-of smile didn't reach his eyes, and soon his beautiful lips were set into a grim line.

She gulped loudly, and she stepped on to the porch, going over to sit on the small bench, where she anticipated his next move. He silently went over to her and draped his leather jacket over her shoulders, and her insides melted a bit, though she was trying hard not to let it show.

He saw right through it, and instead of smiling or bringing it up to humiliate her, his frown deepened.

Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, and when she tried reaching for his hand, she blinked and he was suddenly on the far side of her porch with his back to her.

"I'm leaving."

His voice was cold, decided. Elena stood up too quickly, feeling the blood rush to her head, but forced herself to stay upright.

"You can't," she objected, already starting to feel the familiar pricking in her eyes warning her that the waterworks were about to begin. She stepped forward, and she saw his back stiffen as he felt her get closer.

He took a deep breath to calm himself, and then let out a twisted snicker, but it died away as quickly as it came. "Elena," he started. "I simply _can't _have history repeating itself."

And at that moment, her heart truly shattered into a million little pieces.

Damon loved Katherine with all his heart, and had to live with being second-best to his younger brother. She stepped back, realizing that she was hurting Damon. She was making him believe she preferred Stefan to him by denying her feelings for him. He _couldn't _leave. Elena may be a meek little human, but she would never allow it.

"Damon, please." She grabbed onto his forearm until he turned around to look at her. His expression softened considerably when he saw the tears running down her cheeks, but he still felt too distant. Her breath came out in choked gasps. "Please, don't go," she pleaded. "I'll do anything."

She reached behind her neck and started to unclasp the vervain locket Stefan had given to her when they'd first started dating two years ago. Damon's eyes widened slightly and his hands were soon on her forearms, restraining her from any movement.

His furious eyes were boring into hers, and all she did was shrug. He was weak in the knees because he knew that she would've let him compel her willingly if it would've made him stay.

Her sad brown orbs were pleading with him. "Stay."

His jaw set, but even when they were departing, he wouldn't give in and confess his feelings like some foolish sap. Instead, in true Damon fashion, he cocked his head to the side and smirked. "Give me one good reason why I should."

Elena's jaw dropped a bit. She knew exactly what he was doing, trying to see how much she would admit to feeling for him. And her walls came up again. She couldn't help it, she was born stubborn. She didn't want him to leave, but she didn't want to put herself in a vulnerable situation either, because it scared her too much.

She gulped. "Because you want to win," she told him knowingly. If she knew Damon, then there was no doubt in her mind that his sole mission in Mystic Falls was to outshine his younger brother once and for all.

His lips twitched at the corners, but he shook his head and took a step back.

"Because I need you." It was true, Elena living without Damon was like any living thing without oxygen. Unbearable, impossible, necessary. At this, he hesitated, but shook his head slowly again, taking another step back.

She looked to the sky as if it could help her somehow. "Because I want you." His eyebrows cocked a bit, but he took a step back nonetheless, his eyes burning into hers with even more intensity.

Tears pooled in Elena's eyes once more and her heart clenched, but her lips remained sealed. She knew what he wanted to hear, and she wanted nothing more than to say it and jump into his arms and have him hold her and assure her that he wasn't going anywhere, but it seemed as though she couldn't find her voice.

He looked down to the ground for a bit, opening his mouth to say his final farewell, and that's when she couldn't take it anymore. She lunged at him as if she was a starving panther and he was an oh so juicy calf.

Damon was caught off-guard, but he immediately reciprocated, holding her hips and pushing both their bodies against the wall, all while their mouths moved in sync with each other.

They never kissed before tonight.

It amazed both Damon and Elena how well they meshed together. And Elena couldn't help but scold herself for being too chicken not to have kissed Damon sooner. The contact their lips were making might as well have been the most natural thing in the world, because it felt as if Elena's lips had memorized every detail of Damon's, and vice-versa.

He removed his leather jacket from her frame and threw it on the bench. His hands left a burning trail where they made contact with her skin, and her own hands were entangled in his hair while her thumbs caressed his face. She felt the tip of his fangs run across her neck, and instead of stiffening and shrieking in terror, her eyes rolled to the back of her head at the feeling.

It amazed both of them how much she trusted him.

She pulled away because her lung's need for oxygen was getting to be downright painful. They were both panting, and Elena felt like a giddy schoolgirl when she laid her hand upon Damon's chest and felt the erratic beating of his heart.

"I think we should take this inside." She looked up and saw that his icy blue eyes were slightly darker with lust, and....love. It made her stomach flutter with a thousand butterflies, and she was suddenly reminded of how much she needed Damon in her life.

She nodded, a grin spreading across her face as she thanked the heavens that Jeremy was at his girlfriend's, Anna, house, and that Jenna was out of town, away on a business trip.

* * *

Elena woke up as sunlight filled her room, illuminating everything in its path.

She felt an arm encircled around her bare waist, and when she pulled at it, it instinctively tightened.

"Not trying to get away, are you?" Damon teased, and heat pooled in her cheeks--and somewhere else--when his husky tone reminded her of what she was doing only a couple of hours ago. He ran his thumb across her cheek, smiling, and she averted her gaze somewhere else, embarrassed.

"Does this mean you're staying?" Elena asked uncertainly. They never really did get to finish that conversation...

His eyebrows raised. "Duh," was his answer.

Her smile was brilliant enough to be a light source for a small country. She kissed him gently on the lips, before making her way out of bed. He just lay back and watched her walking through her room.

She rolled her eyes, and once she had all her clothes gathered up, she took a shower and brushed her teeth and hair.

In under five minutes.

_I'm good,_ she thought.

When she went back to Damon, he was in the same position she left him in, but he was somewhere else entirely, deep in thought.

"You know what?" Her voice took him out his reverie.

"What?"

"There _was _another reason I wanted you to stay," she answered.

"You mean besides me wanting to win, you needing me, and you wanting me?" he asked mockingly, but there seemed to be a serious undertone somewhere in there.

She rolled her eyes, but couldn't help the smile that was etched onto her face. "Yes, something more."

She could tell when his jaw set and his eyes narrowed slightly. "And that would be...?"

She ignored all his strange reactions. "Because I love you," she replied easily, and she had to stifle the giggles waiting to erupt at his flabbergasted expression. She felt herself fill up with joy once more as he slowly smiled, realization of what she had just said dawning on him, before he was furious once more, and in less time than it took for her to even process his change of mood, he was standing in front of her, dressed, stoic expression on his face.

"Don't play games with me, Elena."

She was beyond confused. "What do you mean?"

He shook his head exasperatedly. "How can you tell me that you love me if I know that you're going to run back into Stefan's arms as soon as he show up?!"

She gasped. Her hand twitched, aching to slap him. It wasn't like she threw around those three words for just anyone. She's only ever felt this strongly about two guys. And strangely enough, those two guys were vampire brothers. But, as she took some time to process what Damon had just said, she realized he wasn't used to being loved, and found it hard to believe that someone could love him just as much as Stefan...if not more.

And then she made the most difficult decision of her life in approximately fourteen seconds.

"Because I'm not."

He seemed to do a double-take. "What?"

She smiled sadly at him. "I'm yours, Damon. I've made my decision. I've told you before, I am _not _Katherine. I don't want an eternal threesome. I want you. I need you. _I love you_," she explained, and she watched as the stone in his eyes turned back into molten liquid, and his stance relaxed somewhat.

She waited anxiously for his reaction, biting on her lip.

It seemed like forever when he finally said something, and she literally gave a sigh of relief when she saw that mischievous smirk/loving smile stretch his lips apart.

"We shouldn't have put our clothes back on, Elena. They're going to be removed in about....oh, I don't know..._now!_"

They would deal with consequences later...

**

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**p. 247

_"Then the world of the vampires…and Damon. And all the wicked wildness she'd found inside herself, all  
the passion. Stefan was her lynchpin, but Damon was the fiery breath beneath her wings. However far  
she went, Damon seemed to lure her on just a little farther."_

_

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**A/N: How was it? Reviews are loved! :)**

**Yeah, I'm a sucker for a happy, cheesy ending. It started out really angsty, but this happened, and well, c'mon, I couldn't resist!....**


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